In the midst of life I woke to find myself living in an old house beside Brick Lane in the East End of London

More Ancient Mulberry Trees

June 13, 2015

by the gentle author

In Preachers’ Court

The tree at the back of this magnificent array of foliage is one of the pair of ancient black Mulberries that sit on either side of the lawn at Charterhouse. Yet even before I reached this spectacular destination, I had photographed a distinguished specimen growing by the wall in a shady corner of Bunhill Fields.

Hilary Haydon, one of the brothers, greeted me at the gatehouse at three o’clock and led me through to Preachers’ Court where two huge Mulberries flourish enshrined among the luxuriant and imaginative planting that is characteristic of the gardens at Charterhouse, which are looking their very best this week.

Sensibly, Hilary settled down with a book on a bench in the sun and left me to dance around the trees with my camera to discover the best angles and catch the ideal light as the June clouds scudded overhead. The surrounding buildings of Preachers’ Court date from 1531 and there is no reason to suggest the gnarled Mulberries, twisted over with age and propped up by supports, may not be of similar age.

Hilary & I shook hands at the gatehouse upon my departure, where a couple of Mulberries grow inside the wall and reach up over the boundary, only to have their limbs lopped off like Smithfield martyrs. From there, I walked down through the meat market and across Hatton Garden towards Fleet St and Middle Temple where a couple of Mulberries face each other at skewed angles across the pond in the shade of Fountain Court.

Then I strolled off to search further, now that my instinct for seeking Mulberries is attuned, and – sure enough – I discovered another tree growing in the private garden of King’s Bench Walk, where I peered through the elegant railings to capture an image of this alluring specimen supported by iron poles and sequestered beyond reach.

I live in Bartholomew Close overlooking the rear church garden of St Bartholomew the Great. The garden is in need of some tlc, which the Beadle at Founders (Leo) and I are providing, but in the middle there is a very large Mulberry. Gareth from Open Spaces was here recently shaping an Elder which was trying to grow into one of my neighbours’ first floor windows. Gareth said the Mulberry, whilst not as ancient as some around here, was in great shape. I’m so lucky to have a view of it from my window.
I went to Charterhouse on their recent Open gardens evening. Their gardens are magnificent. Thanks for featuring.

I recall an old mulberry at Ingatestone Hall in Essex, eating the mulberries from it and getting very stained with the juice! It is near the Hall in a courtyard. I shall now have to start looking for them here in France!

May I introduce again? MY TREE, a more than 500 years old Oak Tree at the Sensenstein near Kassel, a natural monument. He has lost some larger branches during the last thunderstorms. But that doesn’t bother him. He has survived 500 years of human history!

Wonderful as usual: but by a wild coincidence, I’ve just been reading ‘The Ingenious Mr Fairchild’ by Michael Leapman (Fairchild being of course the famous Hoxton gardener about whom you wrote a few weeks ago). According to Leapman, in 1724 Fairchild and other gardeners reported to the Master of the Charterhouse that two more gardeners should be employed (there was only one at the time) in order to supply the institution with all the vegetables needed: the estimated cost of all proposed changes would be £31.0.6d. It looks as though the recommendation was not acted upon…

There is a mulberry UK website, but it hasn’t got anywhere near all. I know one near Leigh on Sea station and have just seen a couple at Kew. Alas, I had to visit the London Chest Hospital several times but didn’t know about the tree. Now I go to Barts and make do with the Caucasion wingnuts in Smithfield.http://mulberrytrees.co.uk/

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